The Grandparents issue | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/the-grandparents-issue
Guardian Weekend magazine's special issue exploring modern grandparentingen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017Tue, 26 Sep 2017 22:40:58 GMT2017-09-26T22:40:58Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
Your viewhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/23/guardian-weekend-readers-letters
Letters, emails, comments<p>Your <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/the-grandparents-issue" title="">grandparents issue</a> was poignant to me, having lost my mum just a&nbsp;week earlier. While helping us with our children, now eight, 11 and 14, Grandma always insisted on good manners, a jug for the milk, picnics with plates and punctuality. She was never too busy for hugs or too stressed to pass on wisdom. If&nbsp;grandparents are raising the next generation, we should be confident in our future.<br><strong>Helen Rayfield</strong><br>Harrogate, North Yorkshire</p><p>I am a hands-on grandmother to three adorable girls aged three to eight. I&nbsp;love them to bits, but if one of them ever uttered the sentence, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/celebrity-grandparents-and-grandchildren" title="">"I'm New Labour and I&nbsp;supported the invasion of Iraq"</a>, I would disown her in&nbsp;an instant.<br><strong>Patricia Sheerin</strong><br>London SW18</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/23/guardian-weekend-readers-letters">Continue reading...</a>Fri, 23 Nov 2012 22:58:11 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/23/guardian-weekend-readers-lettersPhotograph: Roger Tooth/GuardianEmail inbox Photograph: Roger Tooth for the GuardianPhotograph: Roger Tooth/GuardianEmail inbox Photograph: Roger Tooth for the GuardianGuardian Staff2012-11-23T22:58:11ZChildcare: the grandparents' armyhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/childcare-grandparents-army
They're shattered, their house is a mess and they have no free time. Today's grandparents are a cheap, easy childcare option<p><em>Oh ye cannae shove yer granny off the bus,</em><br><em>Oh ye cannae shove yer granny off the bus,</em><br><em>Ye cannae shove yer granny,</em><br><em>Cos she's yer mammy's mammy.</em><br><em>Oh ye cannae shove yer granny off the bus!</em><br><em>Shove, shove!</em></p><p>Inside our door, you trip over a pushchair. In the kitchen you skid on jigsaws and Lego and bizarrely dressed dolls. It's hardly chic. And haven't we lived like this before, say, 30 years ago? A while ago, my friend Charlotte rang up. "I keep thinking," she said, "how did we have children in this house with all these stairs? Everywhere I go, Maisie has to come, and when I've carried her upstairs and down all day, I'm absolutely shattered." Maisie was then two. Charlotte looked after her one day a week and had her to stay every other Saturday so her parents could go out. The first is a standard pattern, while the second may seem beyond the call of duty, yet is also common. So is the phrase "absolutely shattered".</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/childcare-grandparents-army">Continue reading...</a>FamilyLife and styleParents and parentingSocietyChild benefitCommunitiesChildrenBenefitsEducationGrandparents and grandparentingFri, 16 Nov 2012 23:01:08 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/childcare-grandparents-armyPhotograph: Philipp Ebeling/GuardianJenny Uglow with her grandchildren Matty and Max: 'We’ve been hands-on from the start.' Photograph: Philipp Ebeling for the GuardianPhotograph: Philipp Ebeling/GuardianJenny Uglow with her grandchildren Matty and Max: 'We’ve been hands-on from the start.' Photograph: Philipp Ebeling for the GuardianJenny Uglow2012-11-16T23:01:08ZI hated my grandmotherhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/mavis-cheek-i-hated-my-grandmother
She was a matriach without sentiment but full of bitterness. For her&nbsp;least favourite grandchild, the contempt was mutual<p>As I smoothed my hair back off my face and twisted it into a granny bun, my cousin gave a&nbsp;little gasp. She looked at me with a mixture of shock and amusement. "What's wrong?" I asked. She retrieved her dropping jaw. "You're Mary Ann the second," she said. "The dead spit." She was only confirming what I already knew: that as I&nbsp;grew older, of all her many grandchildren, I&nbsp;looked the most like my grandmother.</p><p>"I know," I said. "And she'll be rolling in her grave…" We both laughed, but somewhat nervously. My grandmother was one hell of a&nbsp;matriarch. She gave little respect, required much and always got it. Except, perhaps, from me. I was, undoubtedly, my grandmother's least favourite grandchild. It's probably safe to say that she came to absolutely loathe me – and not without reason. I, in return, held her in the highest contempt that a little girl could muster.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/mavis-cheek-i-hated-my-grandmother">Continue reading...</a>FamilyParents and parentingLife and styleChildrenSocietyFri, 16 Nov 2012 23:01:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/mavis-cheek-i-hated-my-grandmotherPhotograph: Rex FeaturesMavis Cheek: 'I saw that she held my mother in an iron grip. She knew her power – if she walked out, we’d be put into care.' Photograph: Rex FeaturesPhotograph: Rex FeaturesMavis Cheek: 'I saw that she held my mother in an iron grip. She knew her power – if she walked out, we’d be put into care.' Photograph: Rex FeaturesMavis Cheek2012-11-16T23:01:02ZDiana Athill: why I never became a granhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/diana-athill-why-never-grandparent
She adored her maternal grandmother, but never became a grandparent herself. She explains why<p>My paternal granny never meant much to us, although I look back at&nbsp;her with interest because she belonged so much to her time, which was Queen Victoria's. Always in deepest floor-length black, she was the shape of a tea cosy and was never seen without her cap, a small confection of black lace and velvet that seemed as much a part of her as her scanty hair. She had us to stay once a&nbsp;year, and was benevolent in a&nbsp;muted way, but aunts and other attendants, including our own nanny, clearly felt that she should be spared infant ebullience, and I can't remember any communication between us, even though I&nbsp;must have been at least 10 when she, in her late 90s, died.</p><p>Her husband had been a tetchy man, and my father once told me, with amusement, that Granny dealt with him by fainting gracefully on to a sofa whenever a scene threatened. The only other thing he revealed about this grandfather was that when he himself was a little boy and had an inflamed toe, my grandfather, making a rare visit to the nursery, looked at it and remarked that it must be very painful. It wasn't, and the little boy said as much, whereupon my grandfather said sternly, "Lawrence, if I say something is painful, <em>it is</em>."</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/diana-athill-why-never-grandparent">Continue reading...</a>FamilyParents and parentingChildrenLife and styleSocietyDiana AthillBooksFri, 16 Nov 2012 23:00:56 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/diana-athill-why-never-grandparentPhotograph: Linda Brownlee/GuardianDiana Athill: 'I'd much rather pick up a puppy.' Photograph: Linda Brownlee for the GuardianPhotograph: Linda Brownlee/GuardianDiana Athill: 'I'd much rather pick up a puppy.' Photograph: Linda Brownlee for the GuardianDiana Athill2012-11-16T23:00:56ZCelebrity grandparents and grandchildrenhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/celebrity-grandparents-and-grandchildren
From staying up late to cooking together, famous grandparents and grandchildren – from Sheila Hancock and Tony Benn to Daisy Lowe and Zoe Smith – celebrate the generation gap<p><em>Sheila </em>Being a grandma is lovely. There's a feeling of continuation. I&nbsp;know that when I go, which will be shortly, there will be people going on who have in them a tiny bit of me or John [husband <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/feb/22/broadcasting.guardianobituaries" title="">John Thaw</a> who died in 2002]. And that's nice. What I've most enjoyed is seeing them change and develop. I'm not that keen on them when they're weeny; they don't do much. Then suddenly, for example, Jack is a man. That is so odd. And these girls are suddenly young women.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/celebrity-grandparents-and-grandchildren">Continue reading...</a>FamilyParents and parentingChildrenSocietyLife and styleSheila HancockTony BennCultureFilmTheatreStageTelevisionModelsPoliticsFood & drinkZoe SmithSportWeightliftingGrandparents and grandparentingDaisy LoweFri, 16 Nov 2012 22:59:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/celebrity-grandparents-and-grandchildrenPhotograph: Perou/GuardianSheila Hancock with her grandchildren: 'It's good for them to have a place where they can go and be naughty.’ Photograph: Perou for the GuardianPhotograph: Perou/GuardianSheila Hancock with her grandchildren: 'It's good for them to have a place where they can go and be naughty.’ Photograph: Perou for the GuardianSimon Hattenstone and Becky Barnicoat2012-11-16T22:59:00Z